THE RACE SET BEFORE ME
(Living seed Vol.8 No. 2 July 2001)
1 Cor. 9: 24-27
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it to subjection; lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away.”
LORD, I strongly sense a deep instruction coming to me from Thy Spirit this morning. Grant me a large heart to comprehend Thy wisdom, in Jesus’ Name. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but ONE receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.”
l am in a race!
LORD, it is a race and I must run in a way as to obtain the prize of this calling! A race is set before me… it is not a casual walk… Though there is no carnal competition with any man… yet it is a race with a time and a set of standard rules… While I am not struggling with any man since I have been given a specific track in which to run… a cloud of witnesses compass me about… They have set some standards in their own time… I am not competing with fellow men here… but I am running to meet up with divine standards, divine timing and divine expectations… it is a race that is set before me:
“Wherefore seeing ye also are compassed about with a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us: Looking into JESUS, the author and finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God! For consider him that endured the contradictions of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.” – Heb. 12: 1-4.
Each man has a race that is set before him… It is unique to him: The length and the timing; the rules and the goals in the race are peculiar… Help me to run my own race as well in the time provided for me, in Jesus’ Name. A race (in human terms) demands running in haste, because you are competing horizontally with other men… but this RACE is not an horizontal competition, it is vertical! It is not a competition with men… It is a RUNNING UP to win a prize set by God Himself…
It demands running with patience: Running with endurance… Running in the midst of contradictions and hurdles…Running against shame and mockery: enduring the cross that the world places to double cross my path… Running against the plans and purposes of Satan who is all out to destroy me… Contradictions of sinners would come against my very self… I must endure it and not get wearied in my mind. I must not faint in mind as I press on with the race!
LORD, remind me constantly that I am in a race! My opponent is the devil and the worId! I must accomplish this RACE while it is day… I must not branch out to pick mere flowers of this world… I must see the joy that is set before me, the PRIZE of the high calling… so I can all the more press toward the MARK! There is the MARK! There is the PRIZE!
Only those who hit the mark can obtain the prize…
There is the MARK for the PRIZE! Unless I press toward the MARK, I cannot have the PRIZE… This is the issue. It is not competition with fellows here on earth. It is not comparative analysis of work done that is the issue here… There is a MARK for the PRIZE! If I do not meet the “MARK”, I miss the “PRIZE”, though I have run so much…
Those who hit the MARK obtained the PRIZE! LORD, help my heart to comprehend Thy wisdom in Jesus’ Name.
“So RUN, that you may obtain…”
What a clear instruction for my soul! “So RUN in a way that you may obtain…” Run this RACE that I have set before you in a way that you may obtain the prize for which I have called you. Run with patience and yet with time… Run with careful, meticulous thoroughness.. Run with precision on My instructions to your life… Run according to all the rules I have taught you… Others’ race may not include those rules… Do not copy the rules of other RACES… Run according to the rules of your own race that you may obtain what I have already set before you…
“An athlete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules”. 2Tim. 2:5 (Good News)
“Follow the LORD’s rules for doing His work, just as an athlete either follows the rules or is disqualified and wins no prize” 2Tim. 2:5 (Living Bible).
“Run patiently, carefully and lawfully this race I have (in mercy) set before you… It is My mercy that set this particular RACE before you… I want you to run for this PRIZE… No matter the peculiarities of the race… endure it that you may obtain the prize…”
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible”. . .
Every man (without an exception) that striveth for the mastery… is temperate in all things… He goes with serious and strict training. He takes tremendous pains just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup. “To win the contest you must deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best. An athlete goes with all these troubles just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears”.
Yea, I am in a race! To win this contest, I must further deny myself of many things that would keep me from doing my best…
They may not be sinful, but are indulgences my body craves for, that limits my resourcefulness… It limits my usefulness, it limits my achievements. They do not allow me to do and be my best… Time cannot expand for any man… I am the one to drop any other thing that takes my time from being my best for God!
My body is prepared for me by the LORD, to accomplish my task… It is a SLAVE not a master… I am its master… I must master it and compel it to do what it should, not what it wants to do otherwise I may not meet the MARK for the PRIZE!. I may end up with inexplicable gaps and omissions… I may get to the end with several uncompleted attempts at God’s call on my life!
Given the chance, my body loves to sleep. It loves to be pampered… It loves to eat luxuriously… but it will become like ‘lead’ that cannot be carried and swung anyhow… It will delay me and put me on the ground of mere wishes and plans!
LORD, help me to organize my time with my race in view… Help me to maximize my opportunity. Teach me to handle my day very effectively lest the night falls on me, while I still have much ground to cover and lands to be possessed!
Regulate my schedules! Discipline my acquaintances… Block all my wastes and put them into active service for my LORD, in Jesus’ Name. Organize my MIND, lest it scatters once again and dismantles all I have to do in time for eternity.
LORD, help my soul at this crucial point… Let me understand more clearly this race set before me, even as Christ knew His and Paul was not uncertain of his own course! Drum it daily in my ears, until I can no longer dance to any other tune…
Gleanings!!